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Defence Closing Statement

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Defence Closing Statement SLOBODAN PRALJAK DEFENCE CLOSING STATEMENT THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honours. This is case number IT-04-74-T, the Prosecutor versus Prlic et al . JUDGE ANTONETTI: [No interpretation] . [Interpretation] I'm starting over again. I would like to welcome everybody in the courtroom, the accused, I would also like to welcome the Defence counsel, as well as members of the OTP, and everybody who is helping us in these proceedings. We are continuing today with the closing arguments. General Praljak will have exactly 30 minutes. Mr. Praljak, you have the floor for your 30 minutes. THE ACCUSED PRALJAK: [Interpretation] Good afternoon. I extend my greetings to everybody in the courtroom. I especially extend my greetings to the interpreters. Your Honours, the training of police officers from Bosnia- Herzegovina in Croatia, who were sent by the SDA as early as 1991, the training of pilots of the BH Army in the Republic of Croatia, the training and equipping of entire BH Army units in Croatia, the taking up of hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees in Croatia, the organization of ex-territorial education and schooling for Muslim refugees in the Republic of Croatia in the Bosnian language, which at the time didn't even exist, the uninterrupted supply of weapons to the BH Army, ammunition, oil, medication, food, and other necessary logistics for the BH Army in order to wage a war, the medical treatment of more than 10.000 wounded BH Case number IT-04-74-T, the Prosecutor versus Prlic et al. Slobodan Praljak Defence Closing Statement, Monday, 21 February 2011., pp. 5210-5220. 31 Army combatants in Croatian hospitals, enabling thousands of Mujahedin to come and join the BH Army, regular logistic bases of the BH Army in Zagreb, Rijeka, Split, Samobor, throughout the war, and so on and so forth, and all of this for free. Never in the history of war has one people, the Croats, provided so much help to another people, the Bosnian Muslims, even when the latter turned their army, the BH Army, against the Croats, the HVO, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Defence Closing Statement Defence Closing Never in the history of war has the commander of one army, : the HVO, let convoys with armaments and other equipment pass through to another army, the BH Army, even when that Praljak army, the BH Army, used those armaments and all the rest to attack those who let them receive it. And what about the referendum of Croats for Bosnia- Slobodan Herzegovina, which was a precondition for the existence of that state, the recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Republic of Croatia, the appointment of the ambassador of the Republic Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the signing of all propositions made by the international community on the internal structure of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the first ones to sign were the representatives of the Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosna and the Republic of Croatia. That was the policy of Dr. Franjo Tudjman, president of the Republic of Croatia. It was the policy of the Government of Croatia, the Parliament of Croatia and the Ministry of Defence of Croatia. It was the policy of the HVO. To the Prosecution of this Tribunal, all these are elements of a joint criminal enterprise. Such an indictment uses logic that is offensive even to the cognitive system of a pathogenic virus. What kind of opinion and which positions precede such an indictment? Firstly, Simon Leach, a former police constable in Great Britain member of the OTP team who investigated crimes committed by Croats in the Lasva Valley, at some meeting in the Prosecution in 1996, produced a piece of paper with names, the names of Franjo Tudjman, Gojko Susak and Vice Vukojevic. He interpreted and explained that these were the goals that his investigation was led to. Secondly, I quote from Willem Montgomery's book, "After the Cheering Stops," page 114: "The US special ambassador for war crimes, Pierre Prosper, invited three American ambassadors from the 32 region, from Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia to come to The Hague in order to meet with the representatives of the ICTY. There are two memories rather impressive. The first one refers to the fact that we heard directly from (18) 2017 (18) 2017 Carla Del Ponte that the official approach of her office is 3 based on the position that all war leaders of all parties are guilty of war crimes, and, further on, that she considers which these specific crimes are and how their guilt can beproved. At that moment, it seemed, and it still seems to me, that such a position is false for several reasons." Is Mr. Montgomery a credible witness? What was the reaction of the other three? The positions of Carla Del Ponte are not false for many reasons. Her position is imperial arrogance, a degradation of law and its reduction to Communist purges and Nazi pogroms. Thirdly, in her book "La Caccia: Io e I Criminali Di Guerra," Carla Del Ponte says, on page 254: NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE FUTURE AND THE FUTURE SECURITY NATIONAL "One of the Prosecutors of the Tribunal, a Canadian, well known in his circle for his wit and anecdotes, had an aphorism that did a good job capturing the difference between the Serbs and the Croats who attempted to obstruct the work of the Tribunal. The Serbs are bastards, he used to say. In contrast, the Croats are perfidious bastards." This Prosecutor of the Tribunal, the Canadian, is using hate speech. Del Ponte uses the phrase "he used to say," which means that it was not a one-off witty remark, but a habitual chauvinistic and racist characterisation of the Croats as perfidious bastards. Carla Del Ponte relays the words of one of the Prosecutors of the Tribunal without any restrictions, which means that she completely agrees with that opinion; on an ongoing basis, too, which we can infer from the language and the phrase "he used to say." The lack of any reaction to such a pro-fascist manner of speech about one nation is something I cannot comprehend. I'm interested to know whether the indictment against me may have been drafted under the impression of such an opinion. If, by any chance, I, Slobodan Praljak, had written or said anything like that, anywhere, at any time, about any people or nation or group during the war in the territories of the former Yugoslavia, I would have been sentenced to five years of imprisonment only for that. 33 I really would like to know whether the saying "quod licet Iovi non licet bovi" is something that is a valid rule here in this Tribunal. I really would like to know whether the international organizations which established the Tribunal and which ensure that it is fair, support the position mentioned in the book, this book. The Prosecution has compared me to the Nazis and my activity to the Holocaust. Well, let me then describe the role Defence Closing Statement Defence Closing of Goering, which character, according to the Prosecution, I : compare. Praljak This Goering placed his Jews - actually Muslims - in his country cottage and took care of them. He put his Jews in his apartment in Zagreb. Slobodan He fed them and gave them medical treatment. He exposed himself to sniper fire in front ofthe JNA barracks at Grabovina in order to save the wives of his enemies. He protected the captured JNA soldiers with his own body and saw to it that they make it to their homes safe and sound. He pulled out captured Serb civilians from the Dretelj Camp, although he was being threatened with weapons; not alone, though. The camp was held by HOS members, who were mostly Muslims. He evacuated wounded Jews - actually Muslims – from the hospital in East Mostar; not alone, of course. He organised the evacuation and accommodation of 15.000 Jews - actually Muslims – from Stolac and the Dubrava Plateau, across the Neretva, and 3.000 of their cars. He didn't do that alone, either. He transported a wounded Jewish women - actually Muslim woman - by helicopter from East Mostar to split; not alone. He received a Jewish - actually Muslim - family with a child suffering from leukemia near Uskoplje and transported them to Split to be treated. 34 He helped them to get Croatian citizenship in order to travel to Switzerland and be treated medically at the expense of the Croatian state budget; not alone, though. (18) 2017 (18) 2017 3 He organised that the Salvation Road for Jews - actually Muslims - be built in order to be able to leave to another country, Goering's country, Croatia. He didn't do it alone though. He guided them and fought with the Jews – actually Muslims - defending and liberating Mostar and Capljina and Travnik and Konjic and other places. He didn't do that alone either. He, of his own accord, let the captured Jews - actually Muslims - go who were captured after the conflict in Rama or Prozor, and he prevented retaliation after the Jews - actually Muslims - committed crimes in Uzdol. NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE FUTURE AND THE FUTURE SECURITY NATIONAL He didn't do that alone, and the same applies to Doljani and Grabovica. When necessary, he personally let through convoys transporting food for the Jews - actually Muslims - as well as convoys with armaments, even when the 3rd Corps of the BH Army, the 4th Corps of the BH Army, the 6th Corps of the BH Army and parts of the 1st Corps of the BH Army launched an attack against Goering, against the western borders of Bosnia-Herzegovina, at the port of Ploce, after they had signed a truce with the Serbs.
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